Scottish Executive

Access for Disabled People

Marilyn Livingstone (Kirkcaldy) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to give enforceable legal status to disabled parking bays provided in residential areas.

Nicol Stephen: Under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, local road authorities have powers to make Traffic Regulation Orders for a variety of reasons, including the provision of legally enforceable disabled parking bays in residential areas.

Child Care

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out on kinship care.

Euan Robson: The Social Work Services Inspectorate has commissioned research into kinship care in Scotland as part of a wider review of services for looked after children. The research will be published as soon as it has been received by ministers.

Child Care

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that any research carried out on kinship care will be published prior to any further legislation on child care being implemented.

Euan Robson: The Social Work Services Inspectorate has commissioned research into kinship care in Scotland as part of a wider review of services for looked after children. The research will be published as soon as it has been received by ministers and the Executive will consider whether there is any action needed following publication. There is, however, no intention to implement legislation relating to child care in the current parliamentary session.

Children's Hearings

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to monitor and review the implementation of children’s hearing decisions and the effectiveness of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.

Euan Robson: It is the statutory duty of local authorities to give effect to the decisions made by the children’s hearings. The Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 allows local authorities to be held to account where they have not complied with that duty. The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration through its network of children’s reporters, will record data on the reasons for non-implementation of children’s hearings decision(s). Where it appears that a local authority is not complying with its legal duty, the panel may give authority to the reporter to apply to the sheriff court for a court order.

  The Review of the Children’s Hearings system, which is led by the Scottish Executive, is intended to improve the delivery of services and outcomes for vulnerable children and young people in Scotland.

  Phase one of the review has sought views on the principles and objectives of the children’s hearings system. Phase two will be looking at how the system can be improved to ensure that children who are offending, at risk or in need of care and protection – whether referred or not – get the services they need.

  As a non-departmental public body the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration was subject to a formal Policy and Financial Management Review in 2002 (ISBN 0-7559-0596-2). A further review is planned for 2006-07.

Dairy Produce

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to increase the profitability of the dairy sector and to persuade supermarkets to play a role in achieving this objective.

Ross Finnie: While the Executive has no locus to intervene directly in the market for milk, there is close liaison with industry representative bodies. The main areas where the Executive is able to help are through facilitating exchange with the major industry players, including the supermarkets, and through support for research and development.

Energy Efficiency

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-10971 by Mr Jim Wallace on 8 November 2004, how much financial support each energy efficiency scheme has received; how many people have been supported by each scheme, and what efficiency improvement or carbon saving has been delivered by each scheme.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive has introduced a variety of initiatives to accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency measures in the domestic, business and public sectors. Details of the financial support provided for each and the outputs, where available, are as follows:

  Central Heating Programme

  Since 2001, the Executive has spent nearly £116 million on the central heating programme; which addresses both fuel poverty and energy efficiency. To date, this has provided central heating systems to nearly 43,000 homes. In the first full year for which figures are available, i.e. 2002-03, the predicted annual reduction in CO2 emissions from the central heating programme was 30,710 tonnes.

  Warm Deal

  Since 1999, the Executive has spent £55 million on the Warm Deal, another joint fuel poverty/energy efficiency measure. To date this scheme has insulated 200,000 homes. For 2002-03, the predicted annual reduction in CO2 emissions from Warm Deal was 29,949 tonnes.

  Special Projects Fund

  In 2003-04 the Executive provided funding of £175,000 to the Energy Saving Trust (EST) to support domestic demonstration, pilot or research projects which address energy efficiency issues. The aim of this fund is to enable the EST to develop ways of extending energy efficiency into new areas and produce approaches which address issues of particular importance to Scotland. For example, in the private rented sector assistance has been provided to 224 households to implement energy efficiency measures, directly benefiting an estimated 500 customers to date.

  Regional Business Manager Network

  The Executive provides annual funding of circa £240,000 for six regional business managers in Scotland. The network acts as a local sales and marketing force to enable Scottish business and the public sector to identify energy, carbon and financial savings by encouraging them to take up energy efficiency programmes offering free energy audits, and other support schemes, such as Loan Action Scotland etc (see below). The output of this activity is measured in terms of the increasing take up of these programmes and the financial and emissions potential identified.

  Loan Action Scotland (LAS)

  Since its launch in 1999, LAS has awarded over 80 loans totalling £1.26 million. It is estimated since its inception this funding initiative has produced lifetime savings of 14,250 tonnes of carbon, financial savings of £3.59 million and energy savings of 194 GWh.

  Public Sector Energy Efficiency Initiative

  The Executive is providing significant funding of £20 million to the public sector over the next two years to make capital investment in energy efficiency measures. This initiative aims to deliver up to a 20% reduction in energy consumption by local authorities and Scottish Water, and up to a 15% reduction by health boards over five years.

  The Energy Saving Trust (EST)

  EST runs a variety of programmes which promote energy efficiency to the domestic sector, local authorities and other social landlords. It also works with suppliers of energy efficiency goods and services. Funding for these programmes is provided by the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office (SEEO), part of ETLLD, which has supplied a budget of £3.57 million in 2004-05, with additional funding of £117,000 from the Housing Division.

  A key EST programme is the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre (EEAC) programme which funds eight Scottish EEACs covering the whole of Scotland, as part of a UK network of 52 centres. The centres provide to householders a range of independent, individually tailored advice on energy efficiency and renewables. The centres are heavily used and cost-effective. In 2003-04 there were 90,000 Scottish EEAC domestic clients and the advice given to them led to estimated lifetime savings of 100,000 tonnes of carbon at a cost of £1.108 million.

  The Carbon Trust UK Energy Efficiency Programme

  The Executive has committed a budget of £4.2 million for Carbon Trust activities in 2004-05. In 2003-04, it identified total potential carbon savings of circa 220,000 tonnes and £14 million of potential financial savings to business and the public sector.

Energy Efficiency

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what targets have been set for energy efficiency and what its energy efficiency strategy is.

Mr Jim Wallace: A key goal of the UK Energy White paper is to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions by some 60% by around 2050 with significant progress by 2020. This will build on the UK’s existing goal of moving towards a 20% reduction in CO 2 emissions by 2010. The Executive is committed to making a full contribution to these goals and is party to the UK Government’s Energy Efficiency Implementation Plan which sets out a UK strategy for meeting the Energy White Paper’s Objectives. Energy Efficiency will play a key role in achieving these goals.

  The Executive has a number of energy efficiency measures in place which reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as detailed in the Scottish Climate Change Programme. The Executive is reviewing the programme and will start consultation on this shortly. The need for additional targets, strategies, and measures will be considered as a part of that review.

Fuel Poverty

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what projections it has for any increase in the number of households classified as fuel poor as electricity prices rise.

Malcolm Chisholm: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11811, S2W-11820, both answered 10 November 2004 and S2W-11975 answered 18 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Health

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been an increase in levels of chest infections in (a) Firrhill, (b) Oxgangs and (c) south Edinburgh in the last five years and, if so, what the increase has been.

Mr Andy Kerr: Information to this level of detail is not held centrally.

Health

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what levels of asbestosis have been recorded in (a) Firrhill, (b) Oxgangs and (c) south Edinburgh in each of the last 15 years.

Mr Andy Kerr: An estimate of the levels of asbestosis can be derived from hospital in-patient and day case discharges.

  However, these figures are likely to be an undercount of the total number of hospital admissions caused by asbestos. This is because asbestos will contribute to a number of other conditions including lung cancer, but may not be explicitly identified as an underlying cause since it is not always possible to determine the influence of asbestos exposure to an individual’s condition.

  In the latest 15 year period, there were 16 incident cases (total) in Edinburgh South parliamentary constituency and, additionally, fewer than five incident cases (total) were in Firrhill ward (which forms part of Edinburgh Pentlands Parliamentary Constituency). Information on Oxgangs is not recorded separately. Due to the low numbers the figures for Edinburgh South have been grouped into three separate five year bands.

  Incidence of Hospital Admissions for Asbestosis, 1989-2003

  

 
1989-93
1994-98
1999-2003


Edinburgh South Parliamentary Constituency
3
5
8



  Notes:

  1. Figures for asbestosis are derived from linked records on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals in Scotland (SMR01) Information for linked records are complete between 1981 and 2003.

  2. Up to six diagnoses (one principal, five secondary) are recorded on the SMR01 returns. All six diagnoses have been used to select asbestosis. The following codes were used from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), ninth and tenth revisions:

  Asbestosis: (ICD9): 501

  (ICD10): J61, J92.0.

  3. Incidence of asbestosis is calculated by counting the number of first admissions to hospital each year for asbestosis. Records for a patient are checked back to 1981 to confirm if they had a previous admission to hospital for asbestosis.

  4. Due to the small number of cases identified, figures have not been provided by individual year.

Health and Community Care

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how the increase in funds allocated to "information technology" in the Health and Community Care section of Draft Budget 2005-06 will be spent.

Mr Andy Kerr: In the coming weeks I will announce full details of the new plans and targets that are made possible by the increases in investment in the health and community care budget, including an increase in funds allocated to "information technology".

Local Authority Finance

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the allocation of the concessionary fares budget in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07, as referred to in Draft Budget 2005-06 .

Nicol Stephen: The provision for concessionary fares schemes referred to in the Draft Budget provides for section 70 grant payments for concessionary travel schemes run by local authorities where there is a demonstrated shortfall in funding over the grant aided expenditure allocations. It also provides new resources for the two new national concessionary schemes as stated in Partnership Agreement commitments: one scheme for older and disabled people , which will subsume and extend current entitlements, and the other scheme for young persons. No breakdown of the funding beyond the headline figures is available at this stage.

MMR Vaccine

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the research recently published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons , volume 9, number 2, by Bradstreet, El Dahr et al confirming that measles genomic RNA has been detected in both the gut wall and the cerebrospinal fluid of some children with autism, what steps are being taken to clinically examine autistic children in Scotland for measles genomic RNA in their bodies.

Rhona Brankin: The Executive is not aware of any such steps being taken in Scotland. I also refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11802 answered on 10 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Maternity Services

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Common Service Agency’s National Services Division is satisfied that plans for the reconfiguration of maternity services in Greater Glasgow will result in higher quality provision of transport of critically ill children.

Mr Andy Kerr: The announcement by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 Sept 2004 that paediatric, maternity and adult acute services should be located on a single site in Glasgow means that the transport of critically ill children will continue to be available to the current high standard.

  National Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland will be fully involved in the detailed planning and implementation of the proposal for the triple co-location of services in Glasgow.

National Health Service

Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average response time is for calls to NHS 24, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr Andy Kerr: In October 2004, NHS 24 received 120,869 calls of which 79% were handled within 30 seconds. The information is not available broken down by NHS board area.

Residential Care

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost has been to each local authority of making deferred payments to care home residents in each year since the inception of the deferred payment scheme.

Rhona Brankin: Local authority allocations were increased by £3.5 million per year in 2002-03 to enable them to offer deferred payment agreements. The annual cost to each local authority of making these payments is not held. However, the survey conducted in June requested information on the current value of agreements in place at 30 June 2004. The table shows the information received.

  Value of Deferred Payment Agreements as at 30 June 2004

  

 
Value of Deferred Payment Agreements
(£)
Value of Alternative Agreements
(£)


Aberdeen City
85,537
0


Aberdeenshire
0
5,764


Angus
No return received
No return received


Argyll and Bute
0
107,361


Clackmannanshire
0
0


Dumfries and Galloway
No return received
No return received


Dundee City
0
90,000


East Ayrshire
0
No records held


East Dunbartonshire
0
8,850


East Lothian
0
34,000


East Renfrewshire
0
No records held


Edinburgh, City of
13,573
0


Eilean Siar
No return received
No return received


Falkirk
3,540
Not recorded


Fife
0
0


Glasgow City
0
623,500


Highland
0
No records held


Inverclyde
No return received
No return received


Midlothian
0
0


Moray
0
8,452


North Ayrshire
0
No records held


North Lanarkshire
No return received
No return received


Orkney Islands
127,952
0


Perth and Kinross
74,037
0


Renfrewshire
No return received
No return received


Scottish Borders
No return received
No return received


Shetland Islands
0
39,874


South Ayrshire
No return received
No return received


South Lanarkshire
0
0


Stirling
0
55,000


West Dunbartonshire
0
No records held


West Lothian
0
50,000


Total from 24 authorities
304,639
1022,801



  Source: Survey of local authorities June 2004.

Residential Care

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been budgeted for setting up deferred payment agreements between local authorities and care home residents in each year since the inception of the deferred payment scheme and how this provision was calculated.

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it estimates that it will spend on deferred payment agreements in each of the next five years.

Rhona Brankin: Local authority allocations were increased by £3.5 million per annum from 2002-03 to enable them to offer deferred payment agreements. This was part of a package of measures in response to the Royal Commission on Long Term Care, announced following the 2000 Spending Review. The allocation was based on an estimate of 370 deferred payment agreements per year.

Residential Care

John Swinburne (Central Scotland) (SSCUP): To ask the Scottish Executive what average amount is charged by (a) local authority, (b) independent and (c) private residential care homes for care services per person per week, broken down by local authority area.

Rhona Brankin: The information requested, for the former residential care homes, is given in table number 1.20 of "Scottish Community Care Statistics 2002", published by Scottish Executive National Statistics in 2003, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30356).

  This publication is also available on the web, which can be found at the following link:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00309-00.asp.

  Data for 2003 and 2004, covering all care homes, is in preparation and is currently with local authorities for quality assurance purposes prior to publishing.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the designs published on 11 April 2002 for the upgrade of the Ballinluig junction on the A9 remain those to be used for this work.

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the designs published on 11 April 2002 for the upgrade of the Ballinluig junction on the A9 have been subject to any review or have been revised.

Nicol Stephen: The scheme design is currently under detailed development. However, subject to some minor changes I expect the final layout to be very close to that previously exhibited.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on upgrading the Ballinluig junction on the A9 since designs for the project were published on 11 April 2002.

Nicol Stephen: A new consultancy appointment was made in October 2003 to take forward the detailed design of the scheme. Following this a topographical survey has been completed. Work on an environmental assessment is currently on-going.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when orders will be published to upgrade the Ballinluig junction on the A9.

Nicol Stephen: I expect the draft orders to be published in spring 2005.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how long it takes on average to prepare orders to upgrade trunk road junctions such as the Ballinluig junction on the A9.

Nicol Stephen: This is dependent on each individual scheme and Ballinluig is one of the more complex. Once a design consultant has been appointed an average timescale of around 18 to 24 months to reach the draft order stage would be normal.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether an environmental assessment has been carried out of the proposal to upgrade the Ballinluig junction on the A9.

Nicol Stephen: An environmental assessment is currently being carried out.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time taken is to prepare an environmental assessment on a project such as the proposal to upgrade the Ballinluig junction on the A9.

Nicol Stephen: The environmental assessment is part of the design process and requires to be completed in parallel with the draft orders. Once an environmental consultant has been appointed an average timescale would be 18 to 24 months.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on preparations to upgrade the Ballinluig junction on the A9 in (a) 2002-03, (b) 2003-04 and (c) 2004-05.

Nicol Stephen: The following table gives the information requested:

  

(a) 2002-03
£84,000


(b) 2003-04
£60,000


(c) 2004-05
£201,000

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it is planning to spend on preparations to upgrade the Ballinluig junction on the A9 in (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06, (c) 2006-07 and (d) 2007-08.

Nicol Stephen: In 2004-05, £600,000 was spent. Expenditure beyond 2004-05 is subject to the satisfactory completion of the statutory procedures.

Roads

Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects work to be completed on the upgrade of the Ballinluig junction on the A9.

Nicol Stephen: Tendering and construction of a new junction is expected to take approximately two years from the date that all statutory procedures (including, if necessary, a public local inquiry) have been successfully completed.

Roads

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the report into the Balmedie to Tipperty study which it commissioned in 2002 will be published.

Nicol Stephen: This type of report is not normally subject to publication. I will, however, make a copy available in the Parliament Resource Centre after we have fulfilled our commitment to consult the North East Scotland Transport Partnership on the report’s conclusions.

Smoking

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the findings of the opinion poll commissioned in relation to the consultation on smoking in public places.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Executive Summary of the Opinion Survey conducted in support of the consultation on smoking in public places can be accessed on the Scottish Executive website at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/smoking .

Speed Limits

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the spending stream "20 mph Limits around Schools and Home Zones" under the level 3 heading "Other Capital Grants to Local Authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships" in Draft Budget 2005-06 will be used for.

Nicol Stephen: The spending stream will be used by the Executive to make available to local authorities additional capital funding for the introduction of 20 mph speed limits around schools, safer routes to school projects and the development of home zones. A wide range of measures can be implemented under safer routes to school schemes, including crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, the provision of footways and cycle-ways, and traffic free entrances to schools.

  I announced on 4 November the amount of funding being made available to each authority in 2006-07 and 2007-08 for these measures.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Head of Public Affairs

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what the duties and remit are of the post of Head of Public Affairs.

Duncan McNeil (on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body): The remit of the Head of Public Affairs is to lead the Public Affairs Group in the areas of visitor services, external communications, corporate publications, education and outreach services, and to ensure that a strategic approach is taken to developing these areas.

  The main duties of the post include:

  Develop an annual group plan setting out targets and performance measures for the group;

  Contribute to the development and implementation of a corporate Scottish Parliament external communications plan;

  Drive the continued development of a visitor services strategy at Holyrood, including tours, retail and public information;

  Be responsible for the proper administration of the budget in line with the Scottish Parliament’s Standing Financial Instructions and other relevant public expenditure guidelines;

  Develop and implement procedures for managing the Parliament’s two main print and design contracts, including budgetary forecasting, monitoring and review;

  Develop and implement future strategies for education, outreach and events, and

  Oversee the management of the media, broadcasting, visitor services and outreach services, publications and public information teams, acting as direct line manager to the relevant heads.